Israeli army withdraws 2 reserve brigades from Gaza

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army has withdrawn two reserve brigades from the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media on Sunday.

The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the withdrawal of the 4th and 55th Brigades came after the completion of their mission in the Palestinian enclave.

There was no comment from the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on the report.

On Saturday, the Israeli army withdrew its 7107th Combat Engineering Battalion from Gaza, two weeks after pulling out the 36th division.

No information is available about the number of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

Despite a provisional ruling Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ordered Tel Aviv to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, Israel continued its onslaught against the coastal enclave where at least 26,422 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 65,087 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi